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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380839">Something New</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterhugger/pseuds/monsterhugger'>monsterhugger</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguous Time Frame, Body Horror, M/M, Monster Transformation, Web!Martin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:41:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,851</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterhugger/pseuds/monsterhugger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Martin is growing extra eyes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>182</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Something New</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At first, Martin hadn’t thought anything of his new eyes.</p><p>He’d had acne quite often when he was younger, so it didn’t strike him as odd when a few red dots had appeared on his face. He’d picked at them, even though he knew he shouldn’t. He spent a fair bit of time looking at himself in the mirror, fussing over his face, wondering if it was worth it to try wearing makeup again or if that would just make it worse. The spots were oddly symmetrical, one on each cheek and four in an arc across his forehead. Martin hadn’t thought anything of that at first, and he wished he had, even though he probably couldn’t have done anything about it.</p><p>Jon had taken notice of them, fussing over Martin’s face himself and making concerned “hm” sounds. Martin had felt self-conscious at first, but then Jon had said something that chilled him.</p><p>“It looks like you’re growing more eyes.”</p><p>Martin had looked at Jon with fear. He looked into Jon’s eyes, all of them, all over his body. If anyone knew how it felt to grow more eyes, it was Jon.</p><p>“You’re kidding,” Martin muttered.</p><p>“Well… not kidding. It’s probably nothing though.”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Martin replied. “But… if I was… how would I know?”</p><p>“If you’re growing eyes, you’ll be the first to know, trust me. But in the meantime, if you start knowing things you shouldn’t or getting weird cravings for something you can’t place, that’s probably a bad sign.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay.”</p><p>Martin had gone about the rest of his day as normally as he could, subconsciously touching his face every once in a while. When he went to brush his teeth that night, the spots on his face looked bigger and redder, but he figured that was just from touching them all day. He slept curled up against Jon’s chest, a hundred eyes watching him as he slept.</p><p>When Martin awoke, his hand was stuck to Jon.</p><p>He pulled on it gently at first, not wanting to wake Jon up and alarm him. Sticky strands connected his hand to Jon’s bare chest, almost like… marshmallow? Martin touched the strands with his other hand. They collapsed into a tangle, like when you walk through a cobweb.</p><p>Martin sighed and went to the bathroom to wash his hands, wondering why he was covered in marshmallow. Had he woken up in the middle of the night and very messily eaten some marshmallows? That had to be it, though he didn’t remember ever having any marshmallows in the house.</p><p>In the bright light of the bathroom, Martin saw that the sticky strands covering his hand weren’t actually white like marshmallow, but a sickly clear grayish colour. Like cobwebs. Maybe that was it, he’d woken up in the middle of the night and walked into a cobweb. It was convoluted, sure, but he supposed it was possible. He figured he should maybe go back to bed so he could apologize to Jon when he woke up.</p><p>Martin was just about to walk out of the bathroom when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. The spots were much bigger, no longer resembling any sort of acne Martin had ever seen. Maybe Jon was right. Maybe he was growing eyes after all.</p><p>He sat awake in bed with his knees hugged to his chest, waiting for Jon to wake up. When Jon finally stirred, several of his eyes locked on Martin immediately.</p><p>“Martin? Everything alright?”</p><p>“I… I think you were right about the eyes.”</p><p>“Let me see.” Jon flicked on the lamp on the bedside table. His eyes squinted at the sudden brightness. Jon rested his hand on Martin’s cheek, gently cupping his face. Martin blinked at him, and he felt something move on his forehead.</p><p>“Did one of them just blink at you?” he said softly.</p><p>“It might’ve tried. They’re not fully formed, but they’re moving.”</p><p>“Oh, god,” Martin whispered.</p><p>“Look to the side for a second,” Jon said. “I want to see if they’re really moving.”</p><p>Martin rolled his eyes to the side, and he felt a horrible twisting sensation in his face as the new eyes struggled to move.</p><p>“Well. They’re certainly moving.”</p><p>“Oh god,” Martin repeated.</p><p>“I mean, it might not be anything to be afraid of. You’re not hungry, are you?”</p><p>“No, not that kind of hungry.”</p><p>“That’s good at least. Of course, maybe that’s going to set in later, but I was feeding for months before I started getting eyes.”</p><p>Martin nodded. He didn’t like being reminded of Jon’s feeding, especially now that he was in danger of becoming like him. They’d managed to keep Jon on a diet of old statements from people who had already died, but the meagre amount of material was keeping Jon somewhat weak. Martin wasn’t sure he’d be able to share. He definitely wouldn’t want to make him.</p><p>“I think I got some cobwebs on you,” Martin said, gesturing at Jon’s chest.</p><p>Jon looked down, noticing a few faint strands across his chest.</p><p>“How did you get cobwebs on me? Have we got such a problem with cobwebs they’ve started growing on you?”</p><p>“I don’t think so. They can’t do that, can they?”</p><p>“Not unless you stay still for a very long time,” Jon said, smiling.</p><p>“Right,” Martin nodded.</p><p>Martin found himself picking at the eyes less once he knew they were eyes. Apparently he had some inherent instinct not to poke himself in the eyes, even if those eyes weren’t really his. He didn’t notice any changes to what he was seeing, but he figured he would once the eyes were fully formed.</p><p>“When did your eyes turn normal?” Martin asked Jon over breakfast.</p><p>“Normal?” Jon asked, blinking unevenly at Martin.</p><p>“Yeah. Like how mine are kind of red right now, how long did yours take to start looking like eyes.”</p><p>“Well… mine were always kind of eye-coloured. Though it took them a few days to become fully formed.”</p><p>“Is that a good or a bad sign, if mine are red?”</p><p>“I’m not entirely sure.”</p><p>“And they’re definitely more evenly distributed than yours, too.”</p><p>“You haven’t got more somewhere else?”</p><p>“No. It’s just these.”</p><p>“Weird.”</p><p>Martin nodded. He took a bite out of his toast, only to feel a shooting pain in his lower lip. He put his hand over his mouth, noticing blood on the corner of the toast.</p><p>“What happened?” Jon asked. “Are you alright?”</p><p>“It’s fine,” Martin replied, struggling to talk over his swollen lip. “Just bit my lip is all.”</p><p>“Let me see,” Jon said. Martin moved his hand away from his mouth. Blood dripped down his lip and onto his chin.</p><p>“That’s a lot of blood,” Jon said. He grabbed a napkin off the counter and walked over to Martin, gently running the napkin over his lip. Blood soaked through easily.</p><p>“Does it look bad?” Martin muttered.</p><p>“It looks… hold on,” Jon said, all his eyes focusing on Martin’s mouth. “Your teeth look funny.”</p><p>“Funny how?”</p><p>“Like… maybe they’re too long? Just the ones in the front, the pointy ones. Almost like you’ve got fangs.”</p><p>“It’s probably nothing though, right?” Martin said shakily.</p><p>“I don’t know. Let’s go to the bathroom and get you cleaned up, alright? You can look in there.”</p><p>Jon handed Martin the bloodied napkin, and he held it to his lip as Jon guided him to the bathroom. He leaned on the sink, keeping the napkin held to his mouth, scared of what he would see if he took it off. Eventually blood soaked through onto his fingers, and he had to toss the napkin into the bin. He pressed his fingers to his swollen lip, looking in the mirror at the two clear puncture wounds. He opened his mouth just enough to see the long, curved fangs in place of his canines. They were only a few millimeters longer than before, but because they were so abnormal they seemed massive. Martin carefully opened and closed his mouth around them.</p><p>“You don’t have fangs, do you,” he said.</p><p>“Definitely not,” Jon replied. He sounded shaken now, like all of this was really starting to sink in.</p><p>“How scared were you when you became an Avatar?” Martin asked.</p><p>“I mean, I didn’t really realize until it had already happened.”</p><p>“And when you realized?”</p><p>“It was bad, Martin. It was very bad.”</p><p>Martin took a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to tell himself it was okay.</p><p>“I don’t know why this is happening,” Martin whispered.</p><p>Jon rested a hand on his shoulder, saying nothing. He didn’t have anything to say. It wasn’t like Jon could tell him becoming an Avatar wasn’t that bad. The dark circles under his many eyes from exhaustion at not being able to consume enough statements said more than any comforting words would have.</p><p>Martin took far too many bathroom breaks that day, looking at himself in the mirror and watching as his extra eyes grew. By the end of the day, they were completely recognizable as eyes, if only a little bit sunken and misshapen. The eyes were a horrible blood-red, and blinked and moved along with Martin’s normal eyes. Martin felt sick watching them. Part of him was glad Jon had already gotten accustomed to seeing his own array of eyes, any other partner probably would’ve run screaming away from him by then.</p><p>Jon was asleep long before Martin, who lied awake until the early hours of the morning, running his tongue over his fangs and blinking his new eyes, horrified at his transformed body. Eventually he fell into a restless sleep, clutching tightly to Jon.</p><p>When he woke up, to his horror, he saw Jon absolutely covered in cobwebs. They wrapped around his body, pinning his arms to his sides and holding his legs together like a mummy. They had avoided his face, but that wasn’t much comfort. Martin knew how terrified Jon was of spiders. If he woke up and saw this, he was going to be quite upset. Martin gently pulled on the webbing that covered Jon. It was somewhat sticky, but it wasn’t tough, and he could easily pull it away. He flicked on the bedside lamp and went to work, carefully pulling the cobwebs away from Jon.</p><p>He’d removed about half of them when Jon opened his eyes.</p><p>“Martin? What’s going on?”</p><p>“Jon, it’s okay, it’s me, I-I didn’t mean to-”</p><p>“What did you do?”</p><p>“Okay, don’t freak out, but… you’re covered in webs.”</p><p>“Webs.”</p><p>“Yes, like spiders, those kinds of webs. I think I got them on you while I was asleep, I’ve been trying to get them to come off but they’re a little sticky, I’m really sorry.”</p><p>“It’s alright,” Jon said, grimacing as he pulled a clump of webs off his chest.</p><p>“It had to be the Web,” Martin sighed. “The guy who’s scared of spiders has to end up dating the spider avatar.”</p><p>“I’m sure I’ll live,” Jon muttered. “Now, are you going to help me get these webs off, or what?”</p>
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